Bibliographic Software for Collaborative Research

In the dark ages of academia, researchers maintained an index card file of all their references. These 15cm by 10cm pieces of lined cardboard were the basic working tool for a researcher and the final stage of writing any paper was going through the paper and confirming the reference details against the index cards. Fortunately life has changed. A little over a decade ago, bibliographic software appeared on the market which replaced these boxes of index cards. Overtime, the functionality of bibliographic software has improved to allow simplified data capture from databases and catalogues, integration with word processors and customisation to meet the referencing idiosyncrasies of a variety of journals. But this generation of bibliographic software contains a significant remaining weakness - it does not facilitate collaboration among authors at different institutions.

Web 2.0 systems have opened imaginations to a brave new world of social collaboration. Bibliographic software has been slow to adopt the philosophy of Web 2.0. My image of a Web 2.0 bibliographic solution would have the following features:

1. Single-click data capture from databases, catalogues and websites
2. Able to record all research sources - paper and electronic
   
3. Integration with word processors
4. Customisable referencing styles
5. Secure storage
   
6. Standards compliant
   
7. Accessible through any computer connected to the web
8. Platform independent
9. Free or very low cost for users
10. Shareable at the user's discretion
11. Use of folksonomies
12. Facilitate creation of communities of scholars
    

Some of these features are available in some Web 2.0 systems. Delicious, CiteULike, LibraryThing, and similar systems all meet the bottom six requirements. Traditional bibliographic systems like Endnote meet the top six requirements. I have not been able to find a single system which meets all 12 requirements.

There are some systems which are moving in this direction. Endnote and RefWorks are traditional bibliographic systems which have expanded to be web based. However, both systems require an expensive licence and are cumbersome to use across institutions. Some of the journal publishers are providing systems free of charge but these systems lack the wordprocessor integration of the bibliographic software and do not work as easily with material published by other companies.

The system which comes closest to meeting the requirements is Zotero 1.5. Zotero is open source software but only works with the Firefox web browser. It provides downloadable addins for Microsoft Word and OpenOffice Writer. The libraries in Zotero are shareable at the user's discretion and this facilitates creation of scholarly communities. To see how these communities can work, click on the Zotero icon in the right-hand side panel of this post. Most references can be captured by a single-click on an icon in the website's address bar. The downside of Zotero is that the only version with all these features is still in beta release so may not be secure and reliable and that it is dependent on Firefox. I have not investigated the use of Zotero on Macs or Linux machines. Zotero is also currently involved in litigation with the owners of Endnote over claims of infringement of intellectual property rights.

Zotero promises to be the next leap forward in bibliographic systems and it can lead to great efficiencies in cross-institutional research collaboration.